Etude Pour La Fortune

late 1934 – August 1940

Ady Fidelin — companion and model

Ray is in a relationship with the French art model Ady Fidelin, who appears in many of his photographs; when he flees Nazi-occupied France, she chooses to stay behind to care for her family.

1935–1937

Books with Paul Éluard and André Breton

Ray makes books with poets: Facile with Paul Éluard (1935), and La photographie n'est pas l'art with André Breton and Les mains libres (drawings) with Éluard, both in 1937.

1937

Formal divorce from Adon Lacroix

Ray and Adon Lacroix are formally divorced, years after their separation.

1940

Fleeing occupied France for the United States

The Second World War forces Ray to flee Nazi-occupied France and return to the United States; Ady Fidelin chooses to stay behind.

1940

Meeting Juliet Browner

A few days after arriving in Los Angeles Ray meets Juliet Browner, a first-generation American of Romanian-Jewish lineage, a trained dancer who studied with Martha Graham, and an experienced artists' model; they will marry in 1946.

1940–1951

Los Angeles: painting and teaching

From 1940 to 1951 Ray lives in Los Angeles, where he focuses his creative energy on painting and also teaches painting and photography.